My goodness, this is going to be a busy week. We have a Sock Club package going out (which is awesome, I can’t deny it) and a humongous yarn crawl hitting our fair city on Saturday and Sunday. But, first, I have two worthy causes I want to bring to your attention:

Handknits for Hard Knock Kids (deadline to donate: January 15, 2010). Last time I checked, we had 48lbs of clothing and it’d be simply fantastic if we could collect 50 lbs in total! We still have a couple of days left. That’s totally enough time to whip up a child-sized hat or two (which is my goal for this week)… I’m afraid my attempt to knit mittens hasn’t worked out too well, but I shall NOT be discouraged! And neither should you. If you’ve been working on a donation for our Hard Knock Kids and won’t make the deadline, let us know and we’ll run it over to the Oregon Foster Care office when you’re ready!

Handknits for Tika (deadline: open-ended for now). Farrah (blogfans should know Farrah) is collecting handknit chemo caps and other “comfort” items for Martika, a 12-year-old girl she mentors. Tika has been diagnosed with cancer and will be spending the next four to six months undergoing chemotherapy treatments and lengthy hospital stays. We’ll also be collecting on Farrah’s behalf, so feel free to send handknits to us and we’ll make sure they get to Farrah.

(how can you say ‘no’ to this face, right?)

If you’re interested in donating, Tika’s favorite colors are purple and pink (respectively) and she’s not allergic to any fibers we know of. I would (humbly) suggest that all donations be machine-washable (just like for our Hard Knock Kids), because of the stressful situation the family is in. Also, it’s important to know that Tika will be shaving her head soon and chemo caps made for her shouldn’t measure above 18″ in circumference. I’ve done a quick survey on ravelry and found several suitable children’s “chemo cap” patterns*: